Sunday, May 27, 2012

Humanrights watch on Ahmadi's

The May 2010 attacks on Ahmadiyya places of worship killed 94 people and injured over 100 others. -File Photo

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments
should bring to justice those responsible for the May 2010 attacks on
Ahmadiyya places of worship that killed 94 people, Human Rights Watch
said today.
On May 28, 2010, militants attacked two Ahmadiyya places of worship
in the city of Lahore with guns, grenades, and suicide bombs, killing 94
people and wounding well over 100. The Punjabi Taliban, a local
affiliate of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (the Pakistani Taliban or TTP),
claimed responsibility. Two men were captured during the attack, but the
government has failed to make progress on their trial, seeking repeated
adjournments from the court as has the defense.
“It’s obscene that two years after the worst massacre in Lahore since
the partition of India, the government has still not brought the
suspects apprehended at the scene to trial,” said Brad Adams, Asia
director at Human Rights Watch. “By pandering to extremists who foment
violence against the Ahmadis, the government emboldens militants who
target the beleaguered community, and reinforces fear and insecurity for
all religious minorities.”
The May 2010 attacks killed 27 people in Lahore’s Model Town area and
67 people in the suburb of Garhi Shahu. Worshipers overpowered two
attackers, Asmatullah, alias Muaaz and Abdullah Muhammad, and turned
them over to police. Each was charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act and
remains in custody, but there has been no progress in the case and
proceedings have been repeatedly adjourned.
Since the May 2010 attacks, there has been an intensification of the
hate campaign against Ahmadis, Human Rights Watch said. In June 2011, a
pamphlet named some 50 prominent Ahmadis in the city of Faisalabad in
Punjab province and declared them “liable to be killed” under Islamic
law, along with all members of the community. No action has been taken
by the government against those who disseminated the pamphlet. In
September 2011, one of those named in the pamphlet, Naseem Butt, was
shot dead. At least another five Ahmadis were killed during 2011,
apparently because of their religious beliefs. In December, unknown
assailants vandalized 29 graves in an Ahmadiyya graveyard in the Punjab
town of Lodhran.
During 2012, extremist groups in Lahore have used discriminatory
provisions of Pakistani law that target Ahmadis and prevent them from
“posing as Muslims” to force the demolition of sections of an Ahmadiyya
place of worship on the grounds that its dome made it look like a
mosque. In the garrison city of Rawalpindi, the authorities barred
Ahmadis from using their place of worship at the insistence of local
extremist groups. In both instances, Punjab provincial administration
and police officials supported the extremists’ demands instead of
protecting the Ahmadis.
“The Punjab provincial government should be providing extra security
to Ahmadiyya places of worship instead of siding with those terrorizing
worshipers and attacking their places of worship,” Adams said.
“Pakistan’s anti-Ahmadi laws need to be repealed, not enforced.”
Human Rights Watch urged the government of Punjab province,
controlled by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim
League (Nawaz) party, to investigate and prosecute those responsible for
intimidation, threats, and violence against the Ahmadiyya community.
Militant groups that have publicly been involved in such efforts include
the Sunni Tehrik, Tehrik-e-Tahafaz-e-Naomoos-e-Risalat,
Khatm-e-Nabuwat, Difa-e-Pakistan Council, and others acting under the
Pakistani Taliban’s umbrella. Leaders of these groups have frequently
threatened to kill Ahmadis and attack the places of worship where
killings have taken place as well as other Ahmadi places of worship.
Ahmadi community leaders told Human Rights Watch that they had
repeatedly brought threats against them to the notice of the Punjab
chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, the provincial government, and the
police controlled by the provincial authorities, and that they had asked
for enhanced security for vulnerable Ahmadiyya places of worship.
However, the provincial government failed to act on the evidence or to
ensure meaningful security.
Human Rights Watch called on Pakistan’s government to introduce
legislation in parliament without delay to repeal laws that discriminate
against Ahmadis and other religious minorities, including sections 295
(blasphemy) and 298 (Ahmadi specific law that prevents them from
“posing” as Muslims) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Human Rights Watch also urged concerned governments and inter-governmental bodies to press the Pakistani government to:
Repeal sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code;
Prosecute those responsible for planning and executing attacks and
committing other offenses against the Ahmadiyya and other religious
minorities; and
Take steps to encourage religious tolerance within Pakistani society.
“The government’s continued use of discriminatory criminal laws
against Ahmadis and other religious minorities is indefensible,” Adams
said. “As long as such laws remain on the books, the Pakistani state
will be seen as a persecutor of minorities and an enabler of abuses.”Background on Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan
The persecution of the Ahmadiyya community is wholly legalized, even
encouraged, by the Pakistani government. Pakistan’s penal code
explicitly discriminates against religious minorities and targets
Ahmadis in particular by prohibiting them from “indirectly or directly
posing as a Muslim.” Ahmadis are prohibited from declaring or
propagating their faith publicly, building mosques or even referring to
them as such, or making the call for Muslim prayer.
Pakistan’s “blasphemy law,” as section 295-C of the Penal Code is
known, makes the death penalty effectively mandatory for blasphemy.
Under this law, the Ahmadiyya belief in the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad is considered blasphemous insofar as it “defiles the name of
Prophet Muhammad.” In 2009, at least 50 Ahmadis were charged under
various provisions of the blasphemy law across Pakistan. Many of them
remain imprisoned.
Since the military government of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq unleashed a wave of
persecution in the 1980s, violence against the Ahmadiyya community has
never really ceased. Ahmadis are killed and injured, and their homes and
businesses burned down, in anti-Ahmadi attacks. The authorities arrest,
jail, and charge Ahmadis for blasphemy and other offenses because of
their religious beliefs. In several instances, the police have been
complicit in harassment and in framing false charges against Ahmadis, or
have stood by in the face of anti-Ahmadi violence.
However, the government seldom brings charges against perpetrators of
anti-Ahmadi violence and discrimination. Research by Human Rights Watch
indicates that the police have failed to apprehend anyone implicated in
such activity in the last several years.
Since 2000, well over 400 Ahmadis have been formally charged in
criminal cases, including blasphemy. Several have been convicted and
face life in prison or death sentences pending appeal. The offenses for
which they faced charges included wearing an Islamic slogan on a shirt,
planning to build an Ahmadi mosque in Lahore, and distributing Ahmadi
literature in a public square. As a result, thousands of Ahmadis have
fled Pakistan to seek asylum in countries including Canada and the
United States.
The Pakistani government actively encourages legal and procedural
discrimination against Ahmadis. For example, all Pakistani Muslim
citizens applying for passports are obliged to sign a statement
explicitly stating that they consider the founder of the Ahmadi
community an “imposter” and consider Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Under
Pakistan’s blasphemy law, virtually any public act of worship or
devotion by an Ahmadi can be treated as a criminal offense.
Since 1953, when the first post-independence anti-Ahmadiyya riots
broke out, the relatively small Ahmadi community in Pakistan has lived
under threat. Between 1953 and 1973, this persecution was sporadic but,
in 1974, a new wave of anti-Ahmadi disturbances spread across Pakistan.
In response, Pakistan’s parliament introduced amendments to the
constitution that defined the term “Muslim” in the Pakistani context and
listed groups that were deemed to be non-Muslim under Pakistani law.
In 1984, Pakistan’s penal code was amended yet again. As a result of
these amendments, five ordinances that explicitly targeted religious
minorities acquired legal status: a law against blasphemy; a law
punishing the defiling of the Quran; a prohibition against insulting the
wives, family, or companions of the Prophet of Islam; and two laws
specifically restricting the activities of Ahmadis. On April 26, 1984,
Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq issued these last two laws as part of Martial
Law Ordinance XX, which amended Pakistan’s Penal Code, sections 298-B
and 298-C.
Ordinance XX undercut the activities of religious minorities
generally, but struck at Ahmadis in particular by prohibiting them from
“indirectly or directly posing as a Muslim.” Ahmadis thus could no
longer profess their faith, either orally or in writing. Pakistani
police destroyed Ahmadi translations of and commentaries on the Quran
and banned Ahmadi publications, the use of any Islamic terminology on
Ahmadi wedding invitations, offering Ahmadi funeral prayers, and
displaying the Kalima (the statement that “there is no god but Allah,
Mohammed is Allah’s prophet,” the principal creed of Muslims) on Ahmadi
gravestones. In addition, Ordinance XX prohibited Ahmadis from declaring
their faith publicly, propagating their faith, building mosques, or
making the call for Muslim prayer. In short, virtually any public act of
worship or devotion by an Ahmadi could be treated as a criminal
offense.
With the passage of the Criminal Law Act of 1986, the parliament
added section 295-C to the Pakistan Penal Code. The “blasphemy law,” as
it came to be known, made the death penalty mandatory for blasphemy.
Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and his military government institutionalized the
persecution of Ahmadis as well as other minorities in Pakistan with
section 295-C. The Ahmadi belief in the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad was considered blasphemous insofar as it “defiled the name of
Prophet Muhammad.” Therefore, theoretically, Ahmadis could be sentenced
to death for simply professing their faith. Though the numbers vary from
year to year, Ahmadis have been charged every year under the blasphemy
laws since their introduction.
In 2008, at least 15 Ahmadis were charged under various provisions of
the blasphemy law. In addition to blasphemy charges, Ahmadis have
sporadically come under physical attack. For example, in June 2006, a
mob burned down Ahmadi shops and homes in Jhando Sahi village near the
town of Daska in Punjab province, forcing more than 100 Ahmadis to flee.
The police, though present at the scene, failed to intervene or arrest
any of the culprits. However, the authorities charged seven Ahmadis
under the Blasphemy Law.
In 2009, at least 37 Ahmadis were charged under the general
provisions of the blasphemy law and over 50 were charged under
Ahmadi-specific provisions of the law. For example, in January 2009,
five Ahmadis, including four children, were charged with blasphemy in
Layyah district of Punjab province. The children were released after
being jailed for six months. In July 2009, Sunni Tehreek militants
staged protests until the local police in Faisalabad district of Punjab
province agreed to register blasphemy cases against 32 Ahmadis for
writing Quranic verses on the outer walls of their houses. Throughout
2009, Ahmadi graveyards were threatened with desecration, and Ahmadi
mosques received threats.
In 2010, at least 70 Ahmadis were charged under various provisions of sections 295 and 298 on account of their faith.
On May 30, 2010, two days after militants attacked two Ahmadiyya
places of worship in Lahore, killing 94 people, a Taliban statement
“congratulated” Pakistanis for the attacks. It called people from the
Ahmadiyya and Shia communities “the enemies of Islam and common people”
and urged Pakistanis to take the “initiative” and kill every such person
“in range.”
On the night of May 31, 2010 unidentified gunmen attacked the
Intensive Care Unit of Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital, where victims and one
of the alleged attackers in the May 28 attack were under treatment,
sparking a shootout in which at least another 12 people, mostly police
officers and hospital staff, were killed. The assailants escaped.
The anti-Ahmadiyya campaign intensified in 2010, exemplified by the
government allowing groups to place banners seeking the death of
“Qadianis” (a derogatory term for Ahmadis) on the main thoroughfares of
Lahore.
Punjab provincial authorities have pointedly ignored pleas for
enhanced security for Ahmadiyya places of worship given their
vulnerability to attack and instead sought to appease the groups posing
the threat. For example, on May 30, 2010, Zaeem Qadri, adviser to the
Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, said in an interview on a private
news channel that the provincial government had not removed the
threatening banners from the city’s thoroughfares to prevent “adverse
reaction against the government” by the groups responsible.

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I am an entrepreneur. I have owned a grocery store, restaurant, published a weekly periodical, owned a video store chain, run a coffee-sandwich shop, and have extensive experience in real estate (sales, development, & as a general contractor). Over the last few years, I worked as preservationist of a historical property (rehabing an 1864 mill building). Founder, President of India Museum and Heritage Society in Providence. Past President of India Association of RI. Past Member Heritage Harbor Museum Board.
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